P-I archives: 6 ways Seattle was part of the moon landing

Exactly 40 years ago, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first humans to set foot on the surface of the moon, making jaws drop all over Earth.

The front page of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on July 21, 1969, the day after the first moonwalk. (P-I Archive)

The P-I covered every angle of the Apollo 11 story, from the political ramifications and religious debate to the local engineers that made it happen.

Here are stories from the P-I archives that made Seattle part of the space race, attached as PDF documents as they looked in print:

Boeing’s finger on Apollo’s pulse: Boeing’s operations in Florida made it the largest industrial contractor involved in the moon missions. Boeing workers managed consoles in the operation control center and pressed buttons during the launch that initiated the automatic firing sequence.

1969 ‘Tom Swift’: Fifteen-year-old Bob Ireland of Seattle made a plotting board and calculated the capsule’s orbit with figures of the ship he made at home.

UW among 48 colleges in space research group: The University of Washington was chosen to be part of the research group, the Universities Space Research Association, that created a link between educational institutions and the federal government. The goal was to build labs and other facilities to help advance space technology and engineering.

A close shave on the moon: An Ellensburg man filed a claim for a franchise of barber shops on the moon and Mars, hoping one day he could take advantage of possible space tourism.